The undefeated Varsity Blues women’s soccer team played both the McMaster Marauders and Brock Badgers this past weekend. U of T was, unfortunately, no longer undefeated when the weekend ended.
In the opening game, Lindsay Lashley scored forty-five seconds in, lobbing a bouncing ball over the keeper’s head, and underneath the crossbar, to put the Blues up 1-0. The half continued in a defensive deadlock, each team’s defence stifling the other’s ground game.
High breakaway passes were collected by aggressive goaltenders while defenders impeded the charge of attacking forwards.
Just before the close of the first half, McMaster’s Hilary Frankovich tied the game, converting off of a chaotically ping-ponging ball in front of the Blues net.
In the second half, the Blues broke the game open. The defence and midfield kicked long balls up the right side to the speedy Lashley, whom the Mac defenders were too tired to cover closely.
Lashley crossed the ball repeatedly into dangerous areas in front of the net. As the half progressed, her crosses became more and more successful. Her first two drifted in behind McMaster’s net; her next one found Shoena Morrison, who scored after getting powerful shot away from in close.
Lashley accidentally put her next cross into the net, giving the Blues a 3-1 lead.
McMaster’s spirit was broken throughout the rest of the game, as they were unable even to convert a penalty shot, which was stopped by Blues’ goaltender Andrea Tristao. The Blues were victorious, winning the match 3-1.
The game against Brock was a different kind of affair. The Blues managed a few good chances to score thanks to some stellar free and corner kicks taken by fifth-year veteran Erin Osborne, but the mad scrambles in front of the net all ended without a goal.
Brock’s ferocious aggressiveness on defence shut Lashley out of any real scoring chance, and kept the Blues offence under wraps. The first half ended in a scoreless draw.
The second half saw Brock’s almost-violent aggression back the Blues up into their own end of the field. The tackling and pushing amongst the players was anger-filled, and Blues’ defender Loretta DeThomasis was given a verbal warning by the referee after giving a retaliatory shove to one of the Badgers.
Brock finally broke the scoreless tie ten minutes before the end of the game. Andrea Tristao stopped the initial shot, but Brock’s Stefanie DeBoer was there to put in the rebound. A renewed offensive effort by the Blues was characterized by a volley of shots on goal, but they were unable to stave off their first defeat of the season.
The defeat means that the Blues will drop to second place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) North division behind York, whom they will play in their last game of the season on October 23.
